Kimberly Murphy, computer technology teacher at East Hills School, presented the Roslyn Board of Education with a number of STEM initiatives for elementary school students.
During the May 3 meeting, Murphy was joined by 10 East Hills students from second through fifth grade from the East Hills Hub, or #ehHUB, the school’s computer lab.
The presentation focused on the highlights of the school’s technology program and the students’ process of learning as well as how these exercises help students with innovative thinking.
“Our technology program is about building on the basic foundation skills and preparing our students to be active participants in this technological world,” Murphy said. “My hope was to spark a passion for innovation and creative thinking that will grow with them throughout their lives.”
Two second-grade students talked about learning to be a good digital citizen — an initiative pushed across the district that will include a required course for all sixth-graders in the 2018-19 school year.
Two third-grade students talked about their assignment to use technology in the study of biographies, where students wrote a riddle about their subject and made a green screen puppet show using the Do Ink application.
Three fourth-grade boys demonstrated a video game they created with an application called Bloxels, which allows users to build a video game by arranging the individual pixels by hand on a grid attached to the tablet computer, which translate into a digital image.
A group of fifth-graders discussed their work with graphics and computer design, and they helped make the aprons each student was wearing which said “techxpert.”
Another fifth-grader talked about 3D printing and presented the board with a prosthetic hand made by the printer.
Murphy said the hand will be donated to e-Nable, a nonprofit organization that gives prosthetic arms and legs to those in need.
Murphy also said the entire East Hills student population participates in the Hour of Code every year, an international movement to get students focused on code for one hour with different tutorials and speakers for different age levels.
“It’s to get them started and to spark a passion so they can learn to be innovators, and create things that will make an impact on their world,” Murphy said. “It’s not about always being on a device. It’s about using the device to your advantage.”
